Palm oil is the world’s most common vegetable oil and an essential, cheap raw material for the unhealthy processed foods sold by multinational food companies. Palm oil production has nearly doubled over the past decade, mostly through the expansion of large-scale monoculture plantations, owned by corporations. These oil palm plantations are associated with deforestation, habitat destruction, greenhouse gas emissions and other problems such as water pollution. Oil palm plantation companies have been accused of theft of land from indigenous and other communities, criminalisation of human rights defenders and labour and human rights abuses.
Twenty years ago, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was set up to address these concerns by bringing together ‘stakeholders’ from various parts of the industry, as well as environmental and social organisations. Its founders said this would prevent the destruction of valuable forests and ensure respect for the rights of plantation workers, smallholder farmers and indigenous people. But experience with the RSPO over the past two decades shows that it has failed to live up to its objectives. It has arguably become more of an industry ‘front’ organisation, principally concerned with helping to protect companies, market palm oil and expand the model of industrial monocultures, rather than a means of ensuring higher standards.
Worse, there is much confusion and a lack of awareness about what the RSPO is and what it means for local communities, workers and even the companies occupying their lands. Grassroots organisations and international allies, including GRAIN, recently agreed to develop information and education tools to help workers and communities better understand the RSPO. This primer, “The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil explained”, is one such tool – a collective document, published by GRAIN but produced with inputs from many organisations.
